


Molly's Guide to Wooing Wizards

by UmbraeCalamitas, WhinyWingedWinchester



Series: I Shine Only With the Light You Gave Me [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb Widogast Needs a Hug, Caleb Widogast is Nott's boy, Cats, Clerics, Don't forget to love each other, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, Hallucinations, Healing, Humor, Hurt Caleb Widogast, Hurt/Comfort, Jester is THE cleric, M/M, Mollymauk Tealeaf Lives, Pre-Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast, Soft Boys, c2 e29, spoilers through c2 e29
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:49:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26279713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UmbraeCalamitas/pseuds/UmbraeCalamitas, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhinyWingedWinchester/pseuds/WhinyWingedWinchester
Summary: In the morning, Jester heals Caleb. Mollymauk is still there.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf & Yasha, Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast, Nott | Veth Brenatto & Caleb Widogast
Series: I Shine Only With the Light You Gave Me [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1908109
Comments: 13
Kudos: 176
Collections: Finished111





	Molly's Guide to Wooing Wizards

_ “Jester.” _

“Mm, morning, Mama,” Jester mumbled, face buried in her pillow. “Five more minutes…”

A warm chuckle met her ears and she had a vague thought that it was odd for her mother to be in her room. 

_ “It’s morning, Jester.”  _

That voice really was too deep to be her mama’s. And Mama hadn’t been in her room for a while now, had she?

_ “You wanted to wake up early. You need to heal—” _

“CALEB!” Jester shot out of bed, tripped on her blankets, and kept running toward the door. “Good morning, Traveler! Thank you! Let’s take care of Caleb!”

She threw the door to her room open with a squeal of delight and ran to Caleb’s room and threw that door open. “Good morning!” 

A series of groans met her cheerfulness. 

“Why are all of you sleeping on the floor? It’s morning! Time to wake up!” 

“Jester. It’s like… five in the morning.” Beau squinted at her through eyes wholly unprepared to deal with sunlight. 

“I know, right? I totally slept in. I’m so glad The Traveler woke me.” She skipped over to the bed where Caleb was somehow still sleeping. “Good morning, Caleb,” she whispered. “I got lots of sleep so all my spells are back. I’m going to heal you now, okay?” 

She shifted the blankets so she could get to his wound and held one hand over it, her other clutching her symbol to The Traveler. 

Fjord sat up from his place on the floor by Yasha, and looked over at the bed. Caleb was still asleep, but he could see Molly’s bright red eyes watching Jester carefully. 

That was interesting. 

Jester had her own eyes closed tightly, lips moving as she conjured her healing magic, and Fjord rubbed tiredly at his face, looking around at the rest of the mismatched group of people he’d surrounded himself with. Beau was blinking bleary-eyed at Yasha who honestly didn’t look any different first thing in the morning. She was fuckin’ terrifying all the time. Fjord was a bit jealous of that ability. Nott was sitting up and watching the bed intently, yellow eyes focused on Jester’s hands. 

And in the doorway stood Keg, scratching her stubbly chin and yawning, and Caduceus. Whatever the fuck it was that the Firbolg was sipping -  _ whoever, you mean,  _ Fjord’s evil brain corrected itself - he didn’t want to know. It smelt… fungus-y. 

Jester opened her eyes, giggled and then grinned at all of them. Before she could speak though, Mollymauk’s hoarse voice broke the quiet. 

“I told you I’d still be here in the morning, Mister Caleb.” 

Fuckin’ saps.

Caleb blinked blearily at Mollymauk. He took in the tiefling for a moment, then looked at Jester. “I am seeing Mollymauk here,” he said lowly, like it was a secret. 

Jester grinned at him, all full of spun sugar and sunlight. “I know! Isn’t it wonderful?” She threw herself over the bed and hugged Molly tightly, eliciting a startled wheeze of breath from him. “We’re so glad you’re alright, Molly!” 

She jumped back to her feet with a grin. “Now! I need pastries and some milk! We should go get breakfast!” She turned to Caleb. “But not you, Caleb. I healed you but you were hurt for a  _ really long time,  _ so you stay in bed and we’ll bring you something to eat, okay? And then maybe you can get a bath later because you smell really bad again.” 

Caleb stared at her, hands clutching the blankets in his fists.  _ “Ja,”  _ he said, looking at her, overwhelmed by the force of nature that she was. “I will stay here then.”

“And Molly can keep you company,” Jester said cheerfully, bouncing to her feet and grinning at him. She turned to the others. “Now come on, guys!”

Beau was slowly getting to her feet. “Jester, I’m not sure this is the sort of town that has a bakery.”

“What? Of course they do, Beau! What kind of town doesn’t have pastries?”

“This kind,” Beau said, but Jester ignored her, grabbing the monk’s arm and pulling her along, out the door, chattering all the while about the different kinds of pastries they had back home and what kinds she thought they might have here. 

“She ain’t subtle,” Fjord muttered and plucked Nott up by the collar. He dropped her on the end of the bed and pointed at Caleb and Molly, who was blushing a bit. “You three nerds stay here. Yasha’s gonna make sure ya don’t move. I will go and make sure the town’s left standin’ once Jester has her pastries and shit.” 

He looked to Yasha, who nodded, and then left, collecting Keg on the way, and immediately decided she wasn’t a morning person. Fjord didn’t think he’d heard so many curses so early in the morning in years. 

The door shut behind the rest of the Nein, leaving the room stunningly quiet in the wake of them. Caleb fiddled with the blankets, absolutely refusing to look up. 

“I… I admit, I feel a little silly now,” he said, after the silence only continued. “Vergib mir, Mollymauk, for not believing you.” 

“Happens far more often than you think,” Molly said cheerfully. “Though I am quite glad you’ve accepted I’m not just a particularly attractive figment of your imagination, dear.” 

Caleb blushed a little, struggling to think of something to say in the wake of that statement. “You would… uh, you would be the best hallucination I have ever had, Mister Mollymauk.” 

Nott bit her lip and turned to bury her face in the blankets over Caleb’s feet. Because if she didn't, she’d laugh and that’d probably wreck the  _ moment _ going on between her idiot boy and Mollymauk. 

She did not  _ dare _ look at Yasha when Molly made a pleased purring kind of noise. 

Caleb’s mild blush had darkened across his cheeks and down his neck. He cleared his throat. “Um… yes, so… I wonder, Mollymauk, if I might ask you a favor.” He thought a moment. “I seem to be doing that quite a bit, actually.” 

“But of course, Mister Caleb.” Molly’s tail was still wrapped tightly around Caleb’s leg, and he refused to let go. Molly beamed at him and propped himself up on an elbow so he could look down at Caleb’s tired face. Poor dear  _ really _ needed a bath. 

Caleb looked down at himself. Jester had removed the bandages to check that her healing had gone well, and while his skin was thankfully devoid of holes, it was also quite dirty. He was covered in blood and no small amount of dirt and gore. 

“Jester mentioned a bath? I would not imagine Shady Creek Run to be a place we would find a bathhouse, but I would settle for a bowl of water at this point.” Caleb could still remember the feeling of the blade going through him and the way it had been twisted before it was pulled back out. He wouldn’t forget it anytime soon, but if he could just wash off the evidence, he could try to put it out of his mind. 

Molly grinned and Nott groaned silently to herself at the sappy look on his face. “Never underestimate my power when it comes to wrangling a bath.” She watched in amusement as Molly pressed a kiss to Caleb’s cheek and then bounded from the bed. 

The moment the door closed behind him she looked up at Caleb, a sly grin on her lips. “So, does this mean I get to be the flower girl?” she asked sweetly. 

Caleb looked back at her from where his eyes had followed Mollymauk out of the room. “A flower girl?” He gave her a confused look. “Do you want to put more flowers in my hair,  _ schatz?”  _

“How have you managed to stay alive this long,” Nott muttered and scampered up the bed, plopping herself into Caleb’s lap. “You’re in love, or at the least, in  _ like _ with Mollymauk,” she said bluntly. 

Caleb’s face went flaming red. “I am not…  _ Nott,  _ you cannot just say things like that.” He glanced sideways at Yasha, but the woman had her eyes closed and it seemed as though she may have fallen back asleep. Still, he lowered his voice as he looked back at Nott. “Besides, it would not matter if I was. Mollymauk could not have such feelings for me.” 

Nott stared at Caleb, and honestly felt the temptation to just smack him simmering close to the surface. Instead, she took a pull from her flask and sighed. “Caleb. Every single one of us has left this room at some point. Molly has not. Yasha forced him through a bath when we first arrived, and he hasn’t left your side since.” Nott cocked her head and put a hand on Caleb’s chest, her fingers easily finding the fine chain hanging there and pulling Molly’s necklace out. “He left this right where it is, Caleb. You’ve been asleep under his coat. He  _ has not moved from your side _ because he promised he wouldn’t _. _ ” 

If that wasn’t fucking telling, what was? 

Caleb stared at her for a long moment. “But…” He looked down at himself. He was not much at all to look at. He was rather poor at taking care of himself. He didn’t bathe often enough, as Jester was happy enough to point out. He dressed in rags and he never bothered to spend money on his clothes. And that was only the stuff on the surface. 

_ “Schatz," _ he whispered. “I am not the sort of person that is  _ good _ for other people to love. It is… it is dangerous to love me.” The people who loved him tended to suffer horrible deaths. His parents. Mollymauk. He feared losing Nott because he could not help but love such a precious girl. And Mollymauk. And the others…

He buried his fingers in Frumpkin’s fur and hugged the cat to his chest. “You heard what I have done, Nott. You know that I am not a good person.” 

“And you think the rest of us are?” Nott asked bluntly. “Fuck, Caleb. We’re all shitty people here. But if you’ve got a chance to be happy? To let some of that bad shit go? Why wouldn’t you take it, idiot boy.” 

She climbed up beside him and shoved her way in under his arms, ignoring Frumpkin’s displeased little hiss as she simply shoved at the cat to make space. “Shut up or I’ll eat you again,” she muttered and rubbed her cheek on Caleb’s shoulder. 

“I think that the two of you would make each other happy. And Molly… he doesn’t seem to care much about the outside of a person, y’know?” 

Caleb’s lips quirked up weakly and he turned his head to bump his against hers, much like he often did with Frumpkin. “You do not think so?”

“Circus people can’t always find time to bathe.” Yasha stood up from where she had been resting, smiling softly at Caleb. “I agree with Nott. You make him happy.” She pointed at them. “Do not leave.” And she headed toward the door to go find what was keeping Molly. 

Molly looked up from where he was crouched by the room with a guilty grin when Yasha closed the door. “I wasn’t eavesdropping, per say,” he said quickly. “I was just… listening through the door to the conversation in the room.” 

Yasha leaned against the wall next to him. “Did you hear what you expected?” 

“No,” Molly said honestly. He fiddled with the bundle of soft towels in his hands and dropped his gaze to his tail. The rings threaded through the tip jingled faintly as he watched it wave back and forth. “I heard… something I never thought to hear.” 

And it had thrown Molly’s own mind into overdrive. He cared deeply for Caleb, for all the Mighty Nein. He loved Yasha fiercely, of that there was no doubt. 

And… he gnawed at his tail tip and then let it go.  _ And _ , he supposed to himself, he loved Caleb rather fiercely too. 

Molly looked up at Yasha and blinked. “What do I do now?” 

Yasha looked at him gently. “What do you want?” 

“For you to give me the answer?” Molly batted his lashes at Yasha, but she just looked at him. “Fine,” he grumbled. “I suppose… I’d rather like to put Caleb in the bathtub and… talk?” 

Yasha nodded. “I meant what I said. I think he would make you happy.” She smiled softly at him. “You deserve to be happy.” 

Mollymauk grinned up at Yasha and got to his feet. He grabbed her in a tight hug, towels forgotten on the floor for a moment. He pressed his face into her throat and breathed her in. “Know that I love you ever so, my darling Yasha,” he murmured and then pulled back. “Now. If you’ll excuse me,” he bent and picked up the towels before winking at her, “I’ve got a wizard to seduce.” 

Yasha ducked her head to hide a smile. “Molly. You’ve forgotten something.” At his curious look, she nodded toward the door. “Goblin ears.” 

Nott’s cackling laughter met his own ears, and Molly snorted into his pile of towels. “Oh well,” he said cheerfully and flung the door open. “Caleb! I’ve come to woo you!” 

**Author's Note:**

> And so ends this short series and our debut into the Critical Role fandom. We're so glad you all decided to join us.
> 
> We're not done playing in the Critical Role sandbox. There's more in the works, but this series ends here. We hope you all enjoyed it. <3


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